Nomination deadline closing in for InvestmentNews Awards

Colleen Bell of Cambridge Investment Research and Brittney Olinger of Koss Olinger

Friday is the final day to highlight a worthy candidate.

Picture this: You wake up, get ready and have your morning coffee. Once you’re out the door, you realize you forgot to do something but can’t remember what it was. You get to the office and your colleague asks, “Did you nominate anyone for the InvestmentNews Award?” Then it dawns on you. That’s what you forgot to do!

Have you met someone lately who impacted your day, week or month? Maybe someone you know is making strides in the industry that you want others to know about? If you answered yes to either or both questions, consider nominating them – or even yourself – for an award!

But do it quickly. The nomination period closes Friday, March 1.

Click here to nominate your candidate for an InvestmentNews Award.

Brittney Olinger, financial advisor at Koss Olinger and winner of the 2023 InvestmentNews Women to Watch Rising Star Advisor of the Year award, says being nominated – and winning – her award gave her the confidence she needed to help her career go further.

“It was a really unexpected recognition,” she says. “I felt really honored not only for myself, but for my firm. They put me in a position to have been able to gain that experience.”

As much as it was a recognition of her and what she accomplished in her first three years in the wealth management space, Olinger says, it’s also a recognition of her firm.

“I was really honored to accept it on behalf of them too,” she added.

As a millennial, Olinger sees the importance of recognizing younger faces, especially when they’re just starting out in the industry.

“Clients see the value of someone younger being in the room because we resemble their family with having multiple generational advisors [at our firm],” she says. “The acknowledgement can only be beneficial in the way I’m viewed by my clients. It personally gave me a lot of confidence to have won that award, which I think can be one of the more challenging aspects early on in your career.”

The first ever InvestmentNews Awards will welcome hundreds of the foremost financial advisors, wealth professionals, and key executives from top organizations. The event takes place on Thursday, June 20, at 583 Park Avenue in New York City.

Sponsored by InvestmentNews and organized by its parent company, Key Media, the InvestmentNews Awards are a great way for you to not only showcase your ambition, drive, and outstanding results but to boost team morale and acknowledge your firm’s collective efforts and hard work.

The schedule for the evening includes a pre-awards cocktail reception, awards ceremony, dinner banquet and a post-party celebration.

Click here to nominate your candidate for the InvestmentNews Awards.

Colleen Bell, winner of the 2023 Women to Watch Allyship Champion of the Year award, says when it comes to award presentations, she always tries to listen to what others are doing, and how they’re pushing things forward.

“How are they bringing more women into the industry? What have they done in order to sell for the gap, because we clearly have a gap in the industry,” said Bell, president of innovation and experience at Cambridge Investment Research. “It’s always about bringing more women in and empowering those women to really take on more leadership roles and financial professional roles. Seeing the people who’ve done it successfully is always energizing.”

Bell highlights she enjoys listening to the acceptance speeches, hearing what they have done and accomplished. “Quite frankly, when I left, it’s like what else can I do? What else can we do to solve for some of these gaps?” she says.

Click here to nominate your candidate for the InvestmentNews Awards.

There are 17 award categories to choose from. In the individual section, categories include Advisor of the Year, CEO of the Year, and DEI Trailblazer of the Year, while the organizational section includes RIA Team of the Year (10 Advisors or More), RIA Team of the Year (Under 10 Advisors), Employer of Choice, and Asset Manager of the Year.

Click here for a full rundown of the 17 award categories.

Winners will be selected by an independent judging panel. Details of the methodology can be found here. InvestmentNews will announce the finalists in April.